Improved car-coupling



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN G. IV.

HOVEY, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVED CAR-COUPLING.

Specification forming To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN G. W. OOOLIDGE, of Portland, in the county of Cumberland, in the State of Maine, have invented a new and Improved Mode of Shackling and Unshackling Railroad-Oars; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The nature of my invention consists in providing a method whereby railroad-cars can be shackled and unsha-ckled without the intervention of any person to connect the same when put in motion by the force of the engine or otherwise, as the shackles connect the cars when they come in contact, and each car disconnects itself from all other cars with which it is connected if, by accident or from any other cause, it be thrown from the track; that the brakeman or any passenger in a car, when the safety of the passengers requires a disconnection, can disconnect the car from all other cars on the train in a moment of time, without the application of the brakes, by the insertion of what I designate as disconnecting-wedges, which can be done by a boy ten years of age; that when the cars are so disconnected the one from the other, though there be many or few on the track, and one or the whole disconnected from each other, they cannot connect again, except at the will or pleasure of the conductor, or, in other words, until the connectin g-wedges are withdrawn from their insertion, which are as readily withdrawn as inserted.

I will proceed to describe its construction and operation, reference being had to the letters on the annexed drawings, to enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention.

Letter (t represents the connecting-blades with shoulders.

Letter 1) represents the wedges by the application of which the shoulders on the blades become disengaged, thereby disconnecting the cars.

The letter 0 represents the braces which connect the lever to the wedges.

The letter d represents the lever which is part of Letters Patent No. 49,676, dated August 29, 1865.

used in inserting the wedges in between the shouldered blades and disconnecting the same.

The letter 0 represents the rubber springs which compress the blades and keep them locked in the absence of the wedges.

The letter represents the channel through which the wedges are applied. a

he letter 9 represents an iron pin which fastens the blades to the box which 'incloses the shackling-power.

The letter it represents the four sides of the box referred to in letter g.

The letter i represents the boxes which contain the rubber springs.

The letter j represents the covers of the lastnamed boxes, which are fastened on the same by screws, to be removed when the rubber which constitutes the springs is applied, and also for the purpose of regulating the rigidity of the springs.

The whole of the shackle, with all its parts, consists of iron or steel, or both iron and steel, except the rubber springs.

I claim the privilege of using any other method or methods with which to insert the wedges described by letter I).

I also claim the privilege of such additional springs as may be deemed expedient from time to time, to be made of steel, iron, or rubber, or any other composition, in the furtherance of the utility of the main principle involved in this shackle.

I wish, further, to be understoodthat, as the size of the shackle, with all its parts, is to be graduated by the force which is to be applied, this point must be left discretionary with those who apply the invention, as the circumstances of the cases may be developed.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to have secured by Letters Patent, is-

A new and improved mode of connecting and disconnecting railroad-cars, called a carshackler, in'manner and form as is set forth in this my specification.

JOHN G. W. (JOOLIDGE.

Witnesses:

THEO. F. HovEY, GHAaLEs F. THRASHER. 

